Wow this looks amazing! I absolutely love garlic and thankfully getting guanciale isn’t too hard where I live. I’ll have to save this video and try it out with the girlfriend.
Thanks for the share.
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I am fond of Sarah Cicolini’s method of preparing the dish.
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Made linguine with the Serious Eats method this weekend. Still one of my favorite cold weather dishes.
Andrew, Kris, or any others who may know. First off, apologies as I realize this is from 2 1/2 year ago.
A few months ago, I was served some very poor carbonara at what I once, pre-pandemic, considered a fairly decent italian restaurant in Seattle (San Fermo - which btw now has a no corkage policy as well 
).
This led to my own experimentation with the dish which i’ve made 7-8 times over the last few months.
Guanciale bought at Town&Country markets, Central Market, et al is pretty heavily cured. Tastes okay, but very, very salty. This led me to the Coro/Salumi ‘uncured’ guanciale mentioned above. This has solved the salt issue, but the problem I am having is that this product seems to be very densely coated in black and white pepper. The white pepper seems especially problematic as it imparts a very strong metallic taste. The first usage (you mail order 1lb, I received 1.2 lbs) was nearly inedible. The 2nd time I used several paper towels to scrub off as much of the coating as I could prior to the saute. This improved things to the point of being ‘tolerable’, but still far short of the saltier, ‘cured’ version (which I guess I can rinse) and far, far short or just using pancetta. I have one portion of the Coro left and will try rinsing it this time, but this guanciale has been ‘curing’ in this rub for some unknown period of time - several weeks or months - I guess I will see how much can be removed. I guess I could also try trimming say 1/4-1/3 inch away from the outer surface.
Just curious if you encountered this issue, or perhaps they have changed their preparation over the last couple of years. Overall i’m disappointed in this product which is $40 per lb.
Jim
I haven’t run into that, and I have some in my pantry right now that I have used 2x for Carbonara.
I have to make one last piece to make a 3rd batch before I order some more. I can’t imagine pepper imparting a metallic flavor, perhaps curing salt?
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dunno. Maybe I just got a bad one. The website says ‘…rubbed with sea salt, black pepper, garlic and fresh herbs’. Agree about black pepper, which should be fine. I have had experiences with white pepper giving like aluminum or other off tastes, but then it’s not necessarily an ingredient, although the coating actually looks like it.
Thinking i’ll stop into their shop on Occidental South and ask around, though that shop is mainly focused on sandwiches and their stick salami products I think.
In the meantime, I do have an order from La Quercia on the way, so i’ll keep trying stuff.
I use to eat carbonara pasta with eggs and bacon but is is too fat for me and read here https://betterme.world/articles/bad-food-combinations/ that the combination of such food is kinda bad . So I decided to cook it with egg yolks and low fat heavy cream instead. And I like that option now more and sometimes, It can sounds weird but anyway, I like to put pieces of hot chilly paper on top. That combination is insane!!!
It’s not Carbonara though 
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I use to eat carbonara pasta with eggs and bacon but is is too fat for me. So I decided to cook it with egg yolks and low fat heavy cream instead. And I like that option now more and sometimes, It can sounds weird but anyway, I like to put pieces of hot chilly paper on top. That combination is insane!!!
Lower fat Alfredo?
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Isn’t that just milk?
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Oxymoron?
Light cream aka single cream would be maybe what he’s talking about. 20% vs 40% in heavy/double cream. Or maybe half and half at 10%. Milk is a long way down the list at 3.5%.
Still Alfredo vs. Carbonara
Definitely looking carefully through this thread as I plan to make some carbonara, perhaps Friday evening, with Smoking Goose guanciale, of course
Our local ‘Town & Country’ markets I mentioned above now stock Smoking Goose, so i’ll try that next.
For me the La Quercia was an improvement over the Coro/Salumi product, but they do sell the guanciale from the case at the Salumi sandwich shop downtown, so i’ll probably give that another chance as well.
Agree that when adding cream/milk you are no longer making carbonara. Sure, it is a rich dish, but reasonable portions mitigate that for us.
Todd, the double boiler method is the way to go. Luciano Monosilio has a newer recipe video out now (https://youtu.be/QA6_rLrFTwc), but it’s the same method as shown in the video Jan posted upthread.
While not carbonara, Spaghetti al Moro at Ristorante Al Moro is my favorite alternative preparation.
- 1 pound spaghetti
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 6 ounces pancetta affumicata (smoked pancetta), cut into cubes
- 1 small peperoncino, finely chopped (or 1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes)
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 cup Pecorino Romano cheese, grated
We’ve been eating at Al Moro since 1975. A classic Roman joint.
Mix the olive oil into the egg yolks?
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- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook until al dente (two minutes less than the package recommends).
- While the spagetti is cooking, add the oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Add the pancetta affumicate and chili pepper and cook until crispy.
- In a large bowl (or the serving platter), add the cheese and then the egg yolks. Mix with a fork until creamy.
- Drain the pasta, retaining about a cup of the cooking water.
- Place the pasta into the skillet and mix well, then add the pasta to the egg mixture. Mix together, adding some of the reserved cooking water if it seems dry.
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Thank you, Simon - this is helpful. If only he listed how much pecorino, as well!